Le professionnel (1981)

Director:

Georges Lautner

Writers:

Patrick Alexander (novel)
Jacques Audiard (writer)

Release Date:

21 October 1981 (France)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

French secret agent Joss Baumont is sent to one of the African countries to kill their president Njala...

Plot Keywords:

French Secret Service | Secret Agent | Military Dictator | Car Chase | Assassination Attempt

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Jean-Paul Belmondo	...	Josselin Beaumont dit 'Joss'
Jean Desailly	...	Le ministre
Robert Hossein	...	Le commissaire Rosen
Michel Beaune	...	Le capitaine Valeras
Cyrielle Clair	...	Alice Ancelin
Jean-Louis Richard	...	Le colonel Martin
Sidiki Bakaba	...	Le prisonnier évadé
Pierre Saintons	...	Le président N'Jala
Marie-Christine Descouard	...	Doris Frederiksen
Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu	...	L'inspecteur Farges
Elisabeth Margoni	...	Jeanne Baumont
Pierre Vernier	...	Salvatore Volfoni
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Maurice Auzel	...	Un flic
Baaron
Michel Berreur	...	Clochard
Jean-Claude Bouillaud
Daniel Breton
Julien Bukowski
Jacques Canselier	...	Livreur de fleurs
Guillaume Corea
Gérard Darrieu	...	Picard
Cheik Doukouré
Pierre Forget
Dany Kogan	...	Le Sergent Gruber
Beate Kopp
Sidney Kotto
René Lafleur
Marc Lamole
Guy Mairesse	...	Instructor Picard
Bernard Marcellin
Bele Mukeba
Samuel Nolison
Serge Nubret	...	L'infirmier au procès
Pascal N'Zonzi
Claude-Bernard Perot
Yves Pignot
André Weber	...	Le clochard "associé"

Also Known As:

The Professional (USA)

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 | Australia:M | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Camargue, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

Company:

Cerito Films

Trivia:

4th highest grossing movie of its year in France. Broke the 300,000 admissions mark in Paris; a record at the time.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the clochards reach the car with the policemen inside, one of the chlochards destroys a bottle on the roof of the car, so the roof gets wet and there are lots of glass splinters on it. In various shots after, the roof is completely clean again.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma (1995)

Soundtrack:

Le Vent, Le Cri

Starts out mediocre and winds up as a great classic.

The tale of an assassin left behind, and his quest to get revenge has been done in many movies. For about 50 minutes, this version isn't in any way exceptional, and has nothing special going for it - in fact, at times, it is rather silly.

Then we get to a high noon duel in the streets of Paris - and you have to pause, and ask yourself - did I accidentally change channels and ran into a Sergeo Leone film? Because this scene is definitely good enough for "Once Upon a Time in the West"... accompanied as it is with Ennio Morricones score.

From this moment the film becomes faster, more intense and more interesting, until it culminates in the absolutely classic scene of Belmondo walking away towards the helicopter, with "Chi Mai" (bet you heard the tune before, and had no idea where it's from) accompanying him...